It's our little secret
by RayneXHatake
Summary: Ever wonder where Kakashi's obsession with Icha Icha came from? What if it started when he was young and what if it wasn't his father who started his obsession? Poor Sakumo, maybe you shouldn't take so many missions.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Well I noticed recently that I can never hope to own Naruto and I've realized I just have to accept that.

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Icha Icha, the bane of very female's existence and one of Konoha's most eccentric Jounin's most prized possessions. Written by the Toad Sage Jiraiya and always edited by a secret editor that even Jiraiya himself refuses to name. That doesn't stop him from dedicating the books to his editor though; each book is dedicated to this mysterious editor with a simple message.

"The moon never serenades the wayward warrior with promises and sweet words."

Most believe Jiraiya's secret editor is a long lost lover or some sort of mistress he keeps away from prying eyes, but this is not the case.

The little orange nuisance that is Icha Icha didn't start out the way most believe. Every book has to have a beginning and every book has to become known or have some type of backing before any publisher considers taking the messily bound pages and turning them into a hardback book. Any writer knows you have to have someone read your work before you ever attempt to publish it. The things you found witty and cheerful while drunk usually aren't as witty and cheerful as you originally thought it was.

Jiraiya knew this and he knew he had to find someone to read his future masterpiece, someone he could trust to give him an honest answer and not sugarcoat their opinion of the manuscript. Someone that wasn't afraid to laugh in his face and tell him he had written nothing but a piece of garbage, someone that had attitude and sass, someone with a uterus.

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Jiraiya didn't know how the idea came to him, nor did he care why, but somewhere in his intelligent mind he realized that he needed a woman to read his first manuscript, well really his second but the first had been a huge flop. No one wanted to read the action story about a boy named fishcake. He needed the womanly advice on how to make his characters believable, and in his mind the only solution to that problem was to either ask a woman or henge himself into one and Jiraiya didn't know if his manly pride would survive a day or two wearing a dress.

Our disgruntled Toad Sage sat on a lone park bench in the middle of the park and thought about all the women in his life who he trusted enough to ask to read his first novel. Tsunade automatically came to mind, but he figured that she'd sooner kill him than read his story, so she was out of the question. Jiraiya sighed as he went over the painfully short list in his head of the women he knew before his eyes spotted one woman he hadn't thought about. One woman that was sure to read his novel and give him her honest opinion. One woman that had a husband that spent more time on missions than at home, a new baby, and a whole lot of time on her hands.

The same woman that gave him a black eye seconds after he asked her cup size during a Jounin meeting five years back. Jiraiya smirked as he stood up and walked over to the mother and her young baby, Hatake Natsuki would be the perfect guinea pig for his first novel.

"Tsuki-chan!"

A sigh is heard coming from the mouth of the smaller woman with wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes. She bent down to pick up her squirming six month old son before turning to the obnoxious Sanin, "Jiraiya, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you today?"

The white haired man smiled at her barely hidden sarcasm, "Now Tsuki-chan, here I've come with a gift for you and you're being all snarky."

Tsuki rolled her eyes and walked away from Jiraiya, making sure she held on tight to her son. Jiraiya ran after her, "Seriously Natsuki, I need you to do me a favor."

The young woman stopped and turned to look at her husband's friend, "Okay, what is it?"

Instead of showing her the novel, he turned his attention to the baby in her arms, "Well if it isn't the little scarecrow."

He plucked the child out of his mother's arms and lifted him to eye level to look at him. The chubby face stared back at the one in front of him with disinterest before noticing the metal plate on Jiraiya's forehead. The child kicked playfully before reaching for the plate but was stopped by the larger hands before he was given back to his mother. "He's gotten bigger since the last time I was in town."

Tsuki nodded, "It's been about three months Jiraiya, Sakumo and I thought you'd never come back."

Jiraiya waved the comment off before watching her hair blow in the wind, "How is Sakumo by the way?"

"On another mission, the Hokage's working him a lot lately. We barely see him and when he's home he's usually sleeping."

Jiraiya nodded, "Well you were a ninja, you understand."

Tsuki didn't respond and instead began walking back to the village center, "Oh Tsuiki wait. I did need your help."

Jiraiya pulled out a stack of messily bound papers, held together with an undersized paperclip and a piece of string. "What is that?"

He didn't answer her; he just placed the papers in her free hand and began to walk away. "Just be honest with me Tsuki, don't give me sweet words or shallow promises; give me the truth."

Tsuki looked at the papers in her hand before looking at her baby in the other. "Well I needed you a new bedtime story anyway. Let's see what uncle Jiraiya has cooked up this time."

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Well I couldn't resist going back to this thought, icha icha had to come from somewhere!

Until next time

'Rayne


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Same as before, I still don't own.

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The wind and rain was pounding against The White Fang's back as he jumped from tree to tree with the speed and grace of a jungle cat. The years of training his body were beginning to pull off as he made the last few miles to Konoha in a full run without leaving him panting like a dog in the middle of summer. He had just returned from one of his many three week missions and wanted to do nothing more than deliver his mission report and crawl into bed beside his wife.

As Sakumo dropped off his mission report and headed home, the rain fell down harder and seemed to drop his body temperature even more. The dark sky and moonless night only made his journey home harder, but with every step towards his house, he felt the emotional and mental exhaustion roll off of his body. Even though he was exhausted, he couldn't help but get excited over the thought of spending the much needed alone time with Tsuki that they hadn't gotten in months.

By the time Sakumo made it home he was even more dripping wet and freezing cold. He quietly stepped into the house and listened as his wife's voice floated down the stairs from the baby's room. Sakumo cloaked his chakra and quietly stalked up the stairs to secretly watch his wife put their child to sleep. He made it to the door and discovered it to be slightly cracker and he could hear everything that was going on in the room. Sakumo smiled as he realized that she was reading to the sleeping Kakashi, and she looked so beautiful doing it.

"Hmmm I wonder what she's reading him, some fairy tale maybe?"

Sakumo put his ear to the crack and listened to the soothing voice of his wife, "And then Jiro grabbed the waist of the barmaid. He wanted her, no he needed her. Her eyes were filled with fear and desire as he pulled open her shirt before-" Tsuki never made it to the next word because Sakumo ran into the room and snatched the crude looking papers out of her hand,

"Sakumo! What are you doing I was reading that!"

Sakumo looked at her; his mask was around his neck so she could see the expression on his face perfectly, "Where did you get this Natsuki? And why are you reading it to a six month old child? Our six month old child?"

Tsuki laughed before reaching and wrapping her arms around Sakumo's neck, "Our dear friend Jiraiya came to visit me the other day, well he more like ambushed me in the part, but he handed me this stack of papers and asked if I would read it for him. I think it's good enough to get published."

"But it sounds like porn!"

"Sakumo, it's no worse than a romance novel, it's far from porn and besides you ran in here at the wrong time. There is an amazing story behind it." The White Fang just sighed, he knew he could never win an argument with her.

"Okay so why are you reading it to him?"

"Sakumo, honestly, I'm more responsible than that. He was asleep and I love to read out loud. I had just started reading before you took it away from me. So can I have it back please?"

Sakumo handed her back the papers and kissed her firmly on the lips, "So did you miss me?"

Tsuki smiled before replying, "Why would I miss you when I have Jiro to keep me company?"

Sakumo's eyes widened and the famed ninja pouted before his wife took pity on him and kissed him soundly. She shooed him out the door and into the bathroom, "Go on, and take a shower, I don't want you to get sick. I'll be there in a minute to get your wet clothes and to take care of those wounds, just let me make sure your yelling didn't wake up Kakashi."

Sakumo disappeared into the bathroom and Tsuki stood beside the crib before looking at the papers in her hand. "Well your uncle Jiraiya is certainly full of surprises, he needs to improve on the dialog but everything is else close to perfect. I guess we'll just have to wait before finding out if Jiro gets his barmaid. As long as you keep quiet about this, I'll keep reading, it'll be our little secret."

Tsuki ran her fingers through soft silver hair.

"Night little one"

The nightly readings continued as the years passed and as Kakashi grew, Tsuki found herself skipping and scanning over more of the risqué parts and focusing on the story that had captured her the first time she ever read the story. As long as Sakumo continued his missions, they would read, but all good things come to an end and their mother/son reading came to an end after Sakumo killed himself in the study when Kakashi was seven years old.

Tsuki boxed up the book and never again picked it up, she died five years later on a mission gone wrong. It wasn't until a year later that Kakashi found the dusty orange book in his mother's hope chest and when he blew the dust off and sat his blood stained ANBU mask beside the wooden chest, he reentered the world that reminded him so much of his past. The 13 year old read the worn pages of the book for the first time in years and found parts of the story his mother had left out, the parts that made Kakashi realize why the book had to be their little secret.

That book went with him everywhere and with it he carried a little piece of the past and a hope for a new future. Now whenever an exasperated female asked why he read the book or a curious student tried to sneak a peek, he would usually think back to a soothing voice and light laughter before replying,

"It's a secret."

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Well I redid it because I felt that it was lacking in some areas, so what ya think?

'Rayne


End file.
